A three-day gender sensitisation workshop was held at Kokopo in response to a request from the AROB Department of Community Development and in alignment with The Autonomous Region of Bougainville Policy for Gender Equality, Women’s Empowerment, Peace and
It was conducted from July 22nd-24th in Kokopo.
The workshop was attended by 11 AROB heads of departments, 13 district managers and their support staff.
The workshop was funded and facilitated by the United Nations Population Fund with assistance from the Law Reform Commission and the national Department of Planning and Monitoring.
The overall objective of the workshop was to build the capacity of government bureaucrats in humanitarian and fragile contexts to effectively manage gender based violence programmes and to integrate GBV programme management considerations.
As a result of the 3-day training course, participants developed an analytical understanding of gender and GBV in humanitarian settings and acquired the knowledge and skills for effective multi-sectoral GBV prevention and response. “The workshop has helped me understand gender relations better and will assist to mainstream gender response into the mining sector," AROB Mining Department Secretary Steven Burai said.
Other department heads such as for Education, DPI, Law and Justice and Finance also expressed the same sentiments. "These are very sensitive issues particularly on AROB and such workshops are very helpful in ensuring better understanding of the underlying problems", Mary Remi Education Secretary said.
A meeting is planned in August for the AROB departmental heads to finalise their sectoral plans.
Dr Eric Kwa, Secretary for the Law Reform Commission who was a facilitator, also recommended a separate sexual gender based violence legislation for AROB.
He said such a law would be specific in addressing this issue on AROB and it's application would target the core issues surrounding the perpetration of this form of violence. "As it is at the moment, this issue comes under a number of Acts and provisions of the constitution including the criminal code but what is needed on AROB is specific legislation to address SGBV", Dr. Kwa said.
The modules covered at the workshop included: Gender dynamics and GBV in humanitarian settings, GBV coordination: Development of GBV standard operating procedures (SOPs), regional models of coordination and GBV mainstreaming, Designing GBV programmes-conducting a GBV assessment, Monitoring and evaluation of GBV programmes, Understanding the inter-linkages between GBV and health in humanitarian settings, GBV and psychosocial support in humanitarian settings, GBV case management, GBV, security and justice mechanisms, Preventing GBV in humanitarian contexts, Advocacy and communication
Photo: Steven Burai, AROB Mining Secretary